Odds and Ends

Matt Cooke Update
For anybody not following the Matt Cooke situation, the NHL threw the book at him. He was suspended for the remainder of the regular season, which at the time was 10 games. On top of that, he was also suspended for the first round of the playoffs, which will be an additional 4-7 games, depending on how the Penguins play.

Overall, I think the NHL got this one right. In my previous blog, I was calling for a MINIMUM of 10 games for Matt Cooke. The NHL gave him 14-17, so I applaud their decision on this one. The decision was also applauded by the Pittsburgh Penguins organization.

Todd Bertuzzi
In tonight's game between the Red Wings and Blackhawks, Todd Bertuzzi was ejected early on for a head shot. At 5:17 of the first period, Bertuzzi delivered an elbow to the head of Blackhawks forward Ryan Johnson. Bertuzzi was given a 5 minute major for elbowing and a game misconduct for the hit.

On first instinct, I don't think this one was as blatant as the most recent Matt Cooke elbow. I would really like to see some other angles of the hit though, as well as a slower version. It's obvious at full speed that Bertuzzi's elbow did come up and make contact with the head of Johnson, that much cannot be debated. Based on the play, or what I've seen of it, it doesn't appear as though Bertuzzi came in with the sole intention of delivering an elbow to the head of Johnson. That doesn't make it any less reckless, but I still don't think it was quite as bad as the Cooke hit.

With all of that in mind, Todd Bertuzzi may be the ultimate repeat offender, if there is such a thing. Because it was Bertuzzi that delivered this hit, I expect another lengthy suspension from the NHL. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that he gets the same suspension that Matt Cooke did. I'm predicting the remainder of the regular season, which for the Red Wings is 6 games, plus the first round of the playoffs (4-7 games). So I'm predicting a 10-13 game suspension for Bertuzzi. If the NHL is serious about taking hits like this out of the game, that is what they need to do, intent or not.

Ocho-Ego
During the current NFL lockout, Chad Johnson/Ochocinco/Johnson/whatever his name is now is still playing football. Not that kind of football though, the kind we in the United States refer to as soccer. He is currently on a tryout with Sporting Kansas City (formerly the Kansas City Wizards) of Major League Soccer.

I'm going to get a little sidetracked here. Sporting Kansas City is a dumb name for a professional soccer team in the United States. Sadly, it is still an upgrade over the Kansas City Wizards. There are several teams in Major League Soccer that are trying to give themselves traditional European team names. Those include DC United, FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake, Sporting Kansas City, and Toronto FC, you could also include Chivas USA (who is named after the Chivas club in Mexico). For those not familiar for European football (soccer), FC stands for "Football Club."

I like the fact that MLS is trying to become more traditional, I really do. They did some pretty bizarre, and extremely non-traditional things early on in their history, which really hurt them for a while. But I don't think teams need to have traditional "European-sounding" names. We're the United States and that's just not how we do things here. We're just used to teams having names (e.g. Chicago Fire, Los Angeles Galaxy). I'm not saying that it is right or wrong, because it isn't. It's just what we do here in the States and it's what they've been doing in Europe for over 100 years. I think the MLS and its member teams need to work on establishing their own traditions, with their own identities, rather than trying to get it by copying famous European names. 

Back to my original point. Johnson played about a half hour in a reserve game against the Kansas City Brass and apparently didn't look so good. I'm not saying I'm surprised by that because football is a lot different than football (yes, I did that intentionally). Different sports require players to be built differently so success in one doesn't guarantee success or even results in another.

In the end though, this is basically just a huge publicity stunt, which is a win-win for both sides. It's an opportunity for Johnson to stroke his ego, as he normally does. It's also an opportunity for Sporting Kansas City to gererate some publicity for their club. This is the first year for the team under the Sporting Kansas City name. They were previously known as the Kansas City Wizards from 1995-2010. So this is a good chance for the team to generate more publicity on their recent rebranding of the team. The team is also slated to move into a new stadium, Livestrong Sporting Park, in the middle of the current season (tentatively scheduled for June). More publicity means more merchandise and tickets sold, which means more income for the team.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't be surprised if Johnson suited up for Sporting KC in an actual league game. If this actually happens, I don't think he'd ever see the pitch (field). In reality, he's not a good enough footballer (soccer player) to be on the field with an MLS club against another MLS club. It's all about the publicity and this would generate a lot of it. All of the major papers would probably feature pictures of Johnson wearing Sporting KC gear, which would obviously be huge for the team. Plus, Johnson could continue to stroke his ego some more.

As much of a joke as that would be, it probably wouldn't be bad for the league. It would generate a lot of publicity for the league as well and that is a good thing. The MLS has gotten a million times better in recent years and an event like this could help to showcase the game of football (soccer) and MLS within the United States. Would it fix the game in the States long term? Of course not. David Beckham couldn't do it, so how could Chad Johnson do it? He really can't. But even short term publicity wouldn't be a bad thing for an upstart league like MLS.

The Madness Continues
Remember my blog about the madness of the play-in games? I didn't think it would happen this year, but we now have a situation on our hands. The Rams of Virginia Commonwealth University have miraculously qualified for the Final Four. If you remember right, they had to play the Trojans of USC in one of the First Four games. That means that the Rams have won five games in the tournament already en route to the Final Four. The other three teams (Kentucky, Connecticut and Bulter), on the other hand, have only had to win four. As I said before, that's not fair. They shouldn't have had to play one more game than everybody else to get to this point. Now that a situation like this has come up, the NCAA needs to re-visit its tournament format.

I don't think VCU is a legitimate contender to win the national championship, even though they are now in the Final Four. With that said, I'm just hoping they're able to play their game for the remainder of their tournament run and not run out of gas before it's over. Yes they'll have six days off between games, but their legs have also had to play an extra 40 minutes of game time that their opponent on Saturday (Butler) hasn't had to play. They'll come out jumping this weekend, thanks to adrenaline, but it'll be anybody's guess whether or not they'll be able to sustain that energy throughout the entire game. I think it'll catch up to them eventually.

Get CarLOST
The Chicago Cubs have released fat ass pitcher Carlos Silva. Throughout the second half of last season, before getting injured, and throughout this spring, Silva has not pitched well. That was one of the reasons for his release. After being told that he did not make the club, he was given the option of the trading block, or an assignment to the Triple-A Iowa Cubs (if he couldn't be traded). He told the Cubs that he would not go to Triple-A and then ripped first year pitching coach Mark Riggins. Upon hearing that, general manager Jim Hendry had an interesting quote on the issue: “Basically, he wasn’t good enough to make the team,” Hendry said. “You factor in not only spring training, but you try to go back and factor in the second half of last year, looking at a guy who had a 14-something ERA from July 11 and came to camp with a notion that he already had a spot in the rotation. Obviously, the first three, four outings, quite poor.”

The Cubs decided to eat the remaining time left on Silva's deal, rather than keep him around as a potential distraction for the club. I can't say I blame them there. They probably aren't going to contend in the division this year, but they can still build the foundation for success down the line (i.e. There's always next year...). Also with Mike Quade being a first year manager, he already has enough on his plate, he doesn't need or deserve this. I applaud the Cubs organization for sticking up for and backing their on field staff. There are several organizations, in a variety of leagues, that would not do this in this type of situation.

To make a long story short, Silva is cocky, even though he's not getting positive results. Upon getting those negative results, he's quick to blame everybody else but himself. That's a lesson teachers try to correct in elementary school, just saying. He's out of shape. Plus, he's already had a dust-up with a teammate in the dugout this spring. When the whole thing is added up, Silva had to go. He got what he deserved on this one.